


The (not so) evil twin

by LostinFic



Series: Self-indulgent prompts [3]
Category: Nativity! (Movies - Isitt), The Canterbury Tales (TV 2003)
Genre: Cute Kids, F/M, Fluff, Singing, Teninch Fic, The Proclaimers, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23480296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostinFic/pseuds/LostinFic
Summary: Anon prompted: Roderick being a softie on the inside.Alison is the nanny of Donald's kids. When Donald's twin, Roderick, visits, she finds out he's not as scary as he seems.
Relationships: Roderick Peterson/Alison Crosby
Series: Self-indulgent prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686103
Comments: 25
Kudos: 25





	The (not so) evil twin

**Author's Note:**

> I ship Roderick with Alison Crosby (Billie Piper in The Canterbury Tales), but, for this ficlet, it doesn't matter if you don't know who she is (if you're interested in more of them, maybe consider reading "[Dissonance and Harmony](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17062931/chapters/40121492)")

Nanny wasn’t exactly the glamourous job Alison had dreamt of all her life, but it paid the bills until her inevitable rise to pop music fame. And, to be honest, the two year-old twins were a far more forgiving audience than the bar patrons on karaoke night.

Alison sang “Can’t buy me love” to Noah and Jacob as they ate their breakfast— not the most obvious nursery rhyme, but she prided herself on expanding the boys’ repertoire. The babies ate handfuls of banana slices while shimmying in their high chairs. Using a spatula as as microphone, she glided across the linoleum and repeated the chorus.

Donald, their father, entered the kitchen, tying his tie.

“Have you ever thought of becoming a music teacher?” he asked. “You could help us win the next Song for Christmas competition.”

He was a teacher himself and an all-around lovely, decent man, unlike other men she’d had the misfortune of encountering— but that was all in the past. 

“Maybe I will,” Alison said.

He swallowed a glass of orange juice and put on his coat to go to work.

“By the way, my brother’s coming over today. He might get here before I come back from work.”

“Roderick?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

Alison had never met Roderick Peterson, but she’d certainly heard of him. The good and the bad. His fraudulent behaviour during a children’s choir competition had made the headlines. Donald himself rarely had a kind word for his twin brother though they were trying to mend their relationship. Still, the man had won Grammy awards and was an extraordinary musician and conductor.

“Why’s he in town?” she asked.

“He said he wanted to see us." Donald shrugged. "Just.. let him in and go for a walk with the kids until I come back. And ignore anything snarky he might say about the house.”

“Gotcha.”

*

Roderick arrived not long after lunch. Even just standing there, on the doorstep, Alison found him intimidating. Sure, he looked just like Donald but his thick-frame glasses and slick, parted hair gave him a much more stern look. 

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Alison, the nanny.”

He looked her up and down. 

She took his coat, a classic Burberry trench, and handled it carefully under his watchful gaze. He scanned his surroundings for a clean surface to put down his Louis Vuitton bag.

“Where are the children?” he asked.

She took him to the living room where they were playing with squishy cubes.

Something happened then, a transformation, right before her eyes. Roderick’s face split into a wide smile and he opened his arms, calling his nephews to him. The kids ran to their uncle who pretended to be toppled over. He tickled them, and they screamed with laughter. 

She couldn’t believe it. He didn’t seem to care that his sharp suit would be covered in lint and unidentified sticky stuff. 

Alison joined in their game, helping the twins “escape” their uncle. He chased Noah and Jacob until they hid behind Alison’s legs. Roderick stopped before her, his cheeks were flushed from running and his hair messy from little hands. For the first time, she noticed his boyish freckles. He smiled at her. 

_Oh_.

“You think you can hide behind your nanny?” he said.

The next second, he hauled Alison over his shoulder. She yelped. He carried her across the room. The twins were losing their minds. 

When he dropped her on the couch, she was laughing so hard she could barely catch her breath. He collapsed next to her, in stitches.

“Are you alright?” he asked. “I’m sorry if I caught you by surprise.”

“I’m fine. Really.” 

“There is something to be said for letting one’s hair down from time to time,” he said.

“Yeah, busy man like you, I bet you need to blow off some steam— “

“A’ison!” Jacob said, pulling on her sleeve.

“Give me a minute, sweetie.” _I’m flirting with your uncle_.

“Sing the 500 miles.”

“The Proclaimers?” Roderick asked.

“It’s a fun song, they like it,” she quickly explained, afraid he would disapprove.

She started singing. "When I wake up, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you". She felt self-conscious with a professional, world-renown musician next to her. The twins sang along during the chorus. Much to her surprise, Roderick joined in too. Halfway through the song, they were up and jumping, singing at the top of their lungs, and all her worries were forgotten.

“I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more!”

“Da da da!”

“Da da da!”

Alison had a feeling the kids’ nap was going to be delayed.

Roderick sat at the piano and played another song by The Proclaimers that Alison knew. She sat beside him on the bench, kids on their knees. A moment of instant connection as their voices mingled.

They sang several songs, each with a slower tempo than the last until the twins had been lulled to sleep. 

Alison and Roderick each picked up a kid and carried them to their bedroom. He paused to watch his nephews’ peaceful slumber, a soft smile on his lips.

Although Alison had never felt the pull of motherhood, in that moment, however, she let herself entertain fantasies of the domestic kind.

“Cuppa?” she whispered.

“I’d love that.”


End file.
